Anna Andronova's choice
TEO by Cosmoscow turns 4 years old!
All this time, we have been introducing you to the best Russian authors and galleries, updating sections with current exhibitions and helping to select works for your collections. Over the past six months, we have opened a new section with works by foreign artists, launched a full-fledged course on contemporary art, provided a special performative lot for the Cosmoscow charity auction, and took part in several offline projects. We have many plans ahead: in the near future we will present a large section dedicated to design, add a service of excursions with art historians, and, traditionally, support the annual Cosmoscow fair in an online format.
A little history: in 2020, Anna Andronova, former marketing director at the international holding EuroChem and owner of the Bonpoint children's clothing brand franchise, launched the TEO online platform together with Margarita Pushkina, founder of the Cosmoscow fair. Anna talks about her craving for art like this: “This love happened in childhood. Part of my family lived in St. Petersburg. I grew up in a house furnished with pre-revolutionary antiques, surrounded by family conversations about art in all its forms. A new stage of interest occurred in the 2000s, when I started attending dinners at Aidan Salakhova’s gallery and events of my business partner Elena Berezkina, who at that time owned the Era Foundation for Contemporary Art. I began to actively travel to the Art Basel, Frieze, Fiac fairs and get to know world famous people and interesting people. At the same time, I began to buy young and promising authors, as well as invest in the works of famous museum artists. The first Cosmoscow fair was organized by Margarita Pushkina before my eyes. We have often discussed that Russia lacks a modern, high-quality online platform that will meet not only the needs of buyers, but will also be able to develop the contemporary art market and help artists. The domestic art business is quite closed and opaque, many people do not understand how it works, so we wanted to create an understandable and convenient tool for easy immersion in art. We decided to name the project in honor of Theo van Gogh, the brother of the famous Dutch artist and successful art dealer, thanks to whose patronage and financial support Vincent van Gogh was able to devote his life entirely to painting and sell his first works. Now TEO provides a wide range of opportunities from the acquisition and sale of works of contemporary art to art consulting. One of the key values of the project, in my opinion, is promoting the very idea of collecting for a wider progressive audience who is not indifferent to the development of the art sphere in Russia.”
In honor of the project’s birthday, we present to your attention a selection from Anna Andronova, who, when purchasing, follows the advice of one of the famous New York gallerists: “What do smart people do? They search for and buy the right pieces of art. Study, listen, observe! The main thing is your observation!”
